For those with a twisted or semi-sadistic sense of humor, April 1 is a day where general prankery is accepted and encouraged. For everyone else, April Fools’ Day is 24 hours of psychological torment where nothing is as it seems and nobody is to be trusted. Also, a lot of big brands do obnoxious sh*t.
While the novice April Fools’ prankster might be satisfied with a whoopee cushion or switching out somebody’s toothpaste with mayo, there are those who aim to push the limits in the most twisted of ways. If you plan on unleashing your own April Fools’ prank this year, we urge you to read these cautionary tales from Reddit first. Because nothing ruins a good prank like a stint in jail, crying relative, or punch to the genitals.
Don’t go overboard with the props.
Props have always been part of any April Fools’ prankster’s arsenal, the key is knowing how many of them to use. Take a tip from Reddit user SpanK_ and do a prop test run first. Because the last thing you want is to bite off more than you can chew.
The plan was pretty simple. We would buy around 5 out of 12 blood capsules (little capsules that when enough force hits them, they explode), then in the middle of first period, I would push one of my friends and he would fake hit me in the face causing me to start bleeding in the mouth exaggerating the hit. I decided to make it even more dramatic so I put the whole packet of the blood capsules into my mouth (A dozen). I think I did a good job of hiding it from the rest of the class, but I was unable to speak or open my mouth. We both got up, went to the center of the room, I pushed him then tried to put on my best warface without opening my mouth. I pushed a bit too hard, so he fell to the floor on his ass and EVERYONE except the teacher began to laugh at him.
My friend got up from off the ground and after being humiliated in front of the whole class room swung a huge haymaker into the side of my face which caused all of the capsules in my mouth to explode….all over the teachers crotch area.
I just looked up at her and gave her the cheesiest f*cking grin you could in a situation like this. She sent us both to the principal, we both got a 1 week suspension for some bullsh*t like “Intentional vandalism of school property and potentially affecting the mental health of our peers”… And, yes….the teacher DID have to walk around the school with a period-looking stain on her crotch for the rest of the day.
When the prankee turns the tables.
Choosing one’s April Fools’ Day target should be done wisely. Are they smarter than you? Do they have more power than you? All important questions to ask that Redditor Sharana failed to think about while devising a high school prank.
When I was a senior in high school we decided to totally trash our favorite teacher’s classroom for April Fools’. The janitor was a cool guy and so he let us in and we TP’d the room, jumbled all the desks against the far wall, glued his chalk to the board and painted all over the chalkboard with “removable” paint. The next day we came in and the teacher called us to his room to tell us that the paint wouldn’t come off the chalkboard and we owed the school a new one. A few hours later we were also told that the janitor had been fired for letting students into a teacher’s locked classroom. At the very end of the day (before a 2 week break) my teacher finally confessed that he had told his 1st period class to smudge up all the paint to make it look like it had been washed but that it actually came off fine. He also told us that the janitor wasn’t fired, he was one vacation. My teacher had been planning on letting us stew for the whole two weeks but I finally broke down in tears because I felt so bad about the janitor and he didn’t have the heart to make me wait.
When a prank results in seeking legal counsel.
If the prank results in the prankee hiring an attorney to clear their name as a sexual deviant, consider the line crossed. From Metal_Falsetto:
This was in the mid-90s, back when folks were just realizing all the disgusting sh*t you could find on the internet. A coworker of mine forwarded me a video of some folks partaking in coprophihlia, with the description of “OH. MY. GOD!” or something like that. This was a few days before April Fools’ Day — seizing the opportunity, I went into my email program, and changed my account to have an email address that was one letter off from my real account, and I changed my outgoing name to something completely different. Using this spoofed email address, I replied to the email she had sent me, making it look as though she had sent the video to the wrong address.
In the email, I pretended to be some tight-ass suburban dad who was sick of these “smut peddlers” on the internet. The kicker was that she had sent me the email from her school address. I continued in the email by telling her that I had already contacted both the authorities and the “Computer Services Department” at her university, who had assured me that her computing privileges would be revoked (she was a CS major, so this was especially scary to her).
She never said anything to me at work, and April Fools’ Day came and went, without any response from her. I finally cracked, telling her, “gee, I tried to play a particularly cruel April Fools’ Day joke on you, but you didn’t bite.” When she asked me to elaborate, I spilled the beans. She immediately turned bright red, and told me we had to go outside. When we got outside, I was on the receiving end of a nice punch to the solar plexus. She yelled at me, “The reason I didn’t say anything to you about it was because my lawyer told me not to say anything to anyone!”
Don’t get your family’s hopes up.
If you want to shatter your family’s hopes for the prospect of grandchildren, and potentially have to pay for unused airline tickets, just take a note from Vonka and update your Facebook status.
I changed my status to engaged on Facebook and posted a pic of a fake ring. I meant to just f*ck with my friends but I forgot I had recently added my dad and some extended family. Dad called me telling me congratulations and he booked a venue for the engagement party, and he bought tickets for my family to be flown in from Bulgaria. I started freaking out, I think I might have had a heart attack if he didn’t confess that he was just joking. My mom had told him the “engagement” was an April fools joke and he wanted to get me back. I have not participated in April fools day since.
Don’t involve the IRS.
Aside from getting your tax refund check in the mail, any business involving the Internal Revenue Service is generally about as much fun as bobbing for razor blades. Unfortunately, Redditor JimSFV made the mistake of incorporating the IRS into his prank and is now probably on Uncle Sam’s sh*t list.
My friend owned his own business and was always whining about taxes. On April 1st, I sent a letter and forms stating he had overpaid his taxes. I mocked up an actual form from the IRS, and put my sister’s phone number on it, so when they called to get his refund, she would give him a hard time and tell them it was a joke.
Problem #1: I put the wrong number (not my sister’s) on the form. Problem #2: The form looked so realistic that they actually took it to the IRS Federal building. They realized it was not their form, and the clerk simply filed it. In the meantime, the little old lady whose number I accidentally put on the form called the IRS and asked for them to please take her phone number off their form. This began a Federal investigation.
My filed forgery was found. My friend was called –he immediately gave them my identity. I get a call from a gruff sounding IRS agent. I’m laughing, saying “Who is this really?” Cut to the end: I didn’t have to go to jail because I put a teeny tiny happy face in the fine print at the bottom of the form.
Got an April Fools’ prank that backfired horribly or succeeded brilliantly? Share ’em in the comments.
